IC2 Mattingley, Cuckoos and Migration in Birds. fist^'j' 



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that they are provided by nature with special adaptations to suit 

 their environments, and that these adaptations are not instincts. 

 One cannot therefore tallc of a Duck's innate love of water. Every 

 organism must conform to the laws of rhythmic seasonable changes. 

 We know that eggs are hatched out by solar rays only. So also 

 must the chick, after being hatched out, conform to the same 

 conditions and be governed by its environments — hence environ- 

 ments govern from without. Were Nature to leave everything 

 to instinct there would be no necessity for special adaptations, 

 and we should find that the young Cuckoo, if thrown into water, 

 like the young duckling, would assuredly use these faculties, and 

 so swim out by the same process as the young duckling. But in 

 practice we find that in the first place it cannot see ; secondly, it 

 cannot float, having no nesting down or permanent stimuli to 

 suspend it ; and, thirdly, it could not swim with its present type 

 of legs, because Nature has not endowed it with the permanent 

 stimuli of webbed feet to paddle with. But Nature has given it 

 special adaptations for its preservation, such as the faculty of 

 ejectment, the absence of nesting down confirming this to some 

 extent, because the nesting down would cover and shield the 

 sensitive nerves of the skin. Hence we ultimately find that there 

 is no difference between instinct and reason, but that reason is 

 knowledge. Knowledge comes from teaching, therefore teaching 

 = reason. Reason is wanting in the young Cuckoo, because what 

 training did it receive ? That cannot be shown, and is only 

 answerable by attributing its action to a stimulus, and as I have 

 shown that a stimulus imparting an impulse is received from with- 

 out, and is consequently governed externally, it would be absurd 

 to assume that the primary or external action is instinct or reason, 

 but that instead it is a guiding propensity or physiological law — 

 a rhythmic action which is really an organic and automatic 

 tendency more fundamental even than instinct. 



The Moult of the Blue Wren (Malurus). 



By a. G. Campbell, Melbourne. 



{Read before the A.O.D\, Adelaide Sessiofi, 13/// Octo'-cr^ IQOS) 



I HAVE here a note sent me by a friend in the Black Ranges, 

 near Stawell (Victoria). I ofifer it, with a few remarks of my 

 own, as a basis for a short discussion : — 



" Winter Moult of the Blue Wren. — Having passed the winter 

 in a fixed camp, I have had excellent opportunities of watching 

 this fascinating development. Our camp consisted of three tents, 

 shielded by a rough semicircle of breakwind, which partly enclosed 

 a piece of ground about 40 feet in diameter. This ground soon 

 became bare of grass by continual usage, and on this clean granite 

 floor crumbs were daily thrown, which attracted many interesting 



